Richard McKee RIP: Pasadena Professor Beat Scores of Politicians in Court Who Illegally Kept Public Meetings and Info a Secret

Big loss for anyone worried about the scheming, secretive government entities and politicians so common in California cities, counties and Sacramento: The surprise death of Richard McKee, a widely respected expert on the California Public Records Act and Brown Act who sued some 30 cities and governments who kept public info secret from the public, beating most of them.

Gracious, friendly, sincere and tough, McKee was widely admired by community activists, the media and those fighting for good government in California.

He was, by training, a professor of chemistry at Pasadena City College, and later became a self-taught legal expert. He was for a time the only non-journalist on the Los Angeles Press Club board of directors, where he fought for sunshine laws and open government in Los Angeles County.